Basketball from a fan perspective
Don’t be surprised
Stephen
A. Smith covering the NHL, Stephen A. Smith on baseball also bowling. What about college football and basketball,
well he play basketball in college so there.
There’s not a sport he’s not able to offer inside information and
expertise. You know how I know; wait he
will tell you so? It appears with only
Seth Greenberg in front of him now in salary ESPN figures they are going to
have him cover EVERY SPORT.
Smith
constantly provides us the who, what and why of the NBA and NFL, he can cover
the other sports too. Of course, I am
being facetious, I don’t hate Stephen A. Smith in fact I don’t even dislike
him. My problem is providing opinion
rather than fact at times, he does have kryptonite, Kristap Porzingis, Kansas
City Royals and recently Steve Nash. The
names represent just a few times he called it incorrectly, I know you claim I’m
being too tough on Stephen A. That’s
possible however if he wouldn’t venture out on that limb so often, he wouldn’t
hear it crack behind him.
The NBA bubble
We are
not looking at one game rather a series however there is a question. With all teams in Orlando and virtually no
home court who wins? The 2019-20 NBA
Playoffs is like none in history with no team having an advantage except in
talent. Over the history of the NBA
games have been re-scheduled due to civil unrest and natural disasters but
nothing close to what we are experiencing at present.
In the
regular season according to analytics guy Jeff Sagarin home court is worth an
extra 2.33 points a game. Since 1984
home teams have won 65% of the playoff games played. As for the bubble factor we are not just discussing
a single game we are focused on the outcome of a 7-game playoff series. Despite what might appear to be a question on
my part I have no intention to blame the bubble format and lack of a true home
court advantage.
Mizzou might need a Legend
On
occasion an athlete arrives on the scene with a name that shouts, “he’s got
game.” We do not know that for sure, but
the name certainly stands out, Legend Geeter.
Geeter is a 6-foot 7-inch 220 pound forward, home for this prospect is
River Rouge Michigan. Unfamiliar with
the city I google it and discovered the City of Detroit lies on north, south
and west of River Rouge, on the east side lies the Detroit River.
The geography
lesson now over allow us to focus on the purpose of this piece Legend
Geeter. He is rated a 3-star prospect by
247 sports in the Class of 2021, the youngster is high on Mizzou’s list of
prospects and this feature is one of rarity.
We have avoided writing about prospects until they make their intentions
known. Geeter is in no rush to declare
his objective however Mizzou Nation is hopeful, we are always hopeful. Although several programs are on his list reports indicate Providence and Mizzou are high on his list.
The amazing record
Students
of NBA history and those still alive remember the 100-point game of Wilt
Chamberlain. The box score indicates only 4,124 fans were in
attendance March 2, 1962. The Philadelphia Warriors
had “farmed” out the game to Hershey (PA) a 2-hour drive from the
city. It was common practice by a few NBA teams of that era time to schedule home games in regional locations
other than home.
The
most remarkable part of the story for this writer is Chamberlain’s free-throw
total. He was a notoriously poor free-throw shooter throughout his
NBA career (51.1%) yet managed to shoot 28 out of 32 from the line that
night. Sadly, no film or video of the game exists, we have the
official box score and a black and white photo of Chamberlain with a
handwritten 100 on a scrap of paper. For unexplained reasons tape of
only the 4th quarter radio broadcast exists and has been placed
in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. As for the historic
game the final score read Warriors 169 Knicks 147.
